New album is movement in music – anchored in west

This week, six years on from her first solo record, singer/songwriter Susan O’Neill has released a follow-up. Over the last 18 months, Now in a Minute was recorded between Cork and her home county of Clare. It features a band of Killian Browne, Wexford brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne, and Christian Best on producing duties.

It is not to say the last few years have been barren because, in 2021, O’Neill released the widely acclaimed, and Choice Prize nominated, In the Game with longtime collaborator Mick Flannery, who is credited with several co-writes on the new album.

Still, this is an important milestone and a move back into a more personal sphere. Among a host of dates around Ireland over the next few months, Susan O’Neill plays the Róisín Dubh on November 1.

“It’s a funny thing when you go through a process to get new songs out,” she says. “You feel like the birthing of them nearly happens in the studio. After a long time, when it’s actually finally coming out to other people’s ears, you know them so well at that point. I really feel like I’m ready to share them with people.”

In the Game depicted the development and eventual breakdown of a relationship, building up two strong characters to tell the story. That style of songwriting is not employed on every track of Now in a Minute, though it does appear several times. And one standout is Tijuana, which was written with Flannery.

“For that song in particular, it’s two people,” O’Neill says. “They’re both on the road. They’re living this very large lifestyle. One is quite debaucherous – the other manages to pull away from it a little bit. In some senses, that story is coming from the same approach as In the Game. You’re considering these characters and you’re making them up.

“Apparitions was a cathartic ownership of mental health awareness and deep blues, and not being afraid to say it from the offset of an album. Just sitting in the dark of what it is and what that sadness can be.

“Then realising that it can get better … I think with the album, some of [the songs] were characters, stories that were built and others were just complete, cathartic releases of emotion.”

Pictured: Susan O’Neill....new album and Galway gig.